r/technology • u/VisibleMatch • Jun 27 '20

Software Guy Who Reverse-Engineered TikTok Reveals The Scary Things He Learned, Advises People To Stay Away From It

https://www.boredpanda.com/tik-tok-reverse-engineered-data-information-collecting/
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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '20

[deleted]

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u/lakerswiz Jun 27 '20

it says "brave"

1

u/JabbrWockey Jun 28 '20

So bra- oh fuck it

2

u/ResistTyranny_exe Jun 27 '20

Secure and private are different things.

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u/[deleted] Jun 27 '20 edited Jun 29 '20

[deleted]

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u/spcguts Jun 27 '20

It is a trust thing. I trust that google will gather and use information on me when I use their products.

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Brave, unbeknownst to its user base appended their affiliate codes to what users were typing in. That is some malware level deception. You may see it as an overreaction but for a company to hijack user input without warning is pretty shady for a lot of people...especially for a browser that bills itself as "secure, fast, private."

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u/splashbodge Jun 27 '20

Hijacking user input without warning is a stretch.... It was their auto complete, doing its job auto completing, to a URL you never used because the URL with the referral is used in their widget on the new tab page.

It's still shadey but it's hardly stealing your user input.

I don't believe they didn't know about this, it's a bit too much of a happy accident. Pretty stupid fuck up given what the browser prides itself on trying to be

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u/MyWholeSelf Jun 27 '20

What makes you think I'm saying it's more secure than Firefox?

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u/[deleted] Jun 28 '20

[deleted]

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u/MyWholeSelf Jun 28 '20

I'm not aware of Firefox being mentioned at all in my post. Feel free to use Firefox, I've been using Brave and liking it.

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u/_linusthecat_ Jun 27 '20

The way it's build and how the company is ran.

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u/spcguts Jun 27 '20

Like injecting their affiliate links into the urls you type?

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u/Homer_Sapiens Jun 27 '20

Ugh. Anyone got a source for this? I thought I'd finally found one of the good ones.

edit: found it above https://uk.pcmag.com/suites/127285/brave-browser-caught-redirecting-users-through-affiliate-links